Prof.Xiaolin Chang ,is the first universities cross-century academic leaders of Ministry of Power Industry, one of the first inductees of "111 Talents Project" in Hubei Province, the first universities cross-century academic leaders in Hubei Province, provincial government expert for special allowance and World Bank dam safety experts . He is also the current director of China Society for Hydropower Engineering , the secretary-General of Hubei Province Society for hydropower Engineering, the director of the Institute of structural Materials.

His main research directions are for foundation design theory and simulation methods of the dam structure and optimization of complex dam, including high RCC gravity dam, stability and stress as well as seismic analysis for high rockfill dam and high dam, high-temperature simulation of concrete dam, dam shape optimization, high rockfill dam long flow stress and deformation and so on.